Jonathan Kraft Has High Praise Of Green-Ellis

New England Patriots, BenJarvis Green-EllisBenJarvus Green-Ellis #42 of the New England Patriots carries the ball as Calvin Pace #97 of the New York Jets defends on October 9, 2011 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

FOXBORO (CBS) – New England Patriots president Jonathan Kraft joined the 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Patriots pregame show, and made sure to point out the contributions of one of the Patriots best stories: BenJarvis Green-Ellis

“The thing about him that is so great, he doesn’t have the breakaway speed… but he never had negative runs,” Kraft said of the Patriots running back. “He’s patient, he hits the hole. When you don’t have negative runs as an RB, it means you’re moving the chains and helping your club.”

In addition to gaining yards nearly every time he touches the ball, Green-Ellis has a knack for holding on to the ball. While Kraft did not want to jinx it, Green-Ellis has yet to fumble the football during his pro career.

At least not in regular season play.

“We don’t want to talk about it,” said Kraft. “But I did hear somebody this week in the building mention that to Bill (Belichick) and Bill said you’re wrong. He did it in a preseason game.”

“When that game ended, Bill basically went up to him… said ‘hey, undrafted guys who do that don’t stay in this league,’” Kraft recalled. “And I think Benny’s such a good kid and took that to heart and worked hard. His running last week (against the Jets) was really critical to our success. It’s been fun to see the development of him, it’s great.”

Kraft pointed out that some of the key cogs in the Patriots offensive attack, Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Green-Ellis, were never thought to be stars in the NFL. Brady was drafted in the sixth round, with both Welker and Green-Ellis going undrafted.

Now Green-Ellis is trying to join the other two among the household names on the Patriots offense.